>> Wednesday, March 18, 2015

>> Friday, December 26, 2014

On December 18, we took off for a pre-Christmas trip to Mt. Tremblant.

Austin and Alexandra have been asking to learn to ski for awhile so we decided what better way than to throw them on a mountain and say 'go'.

After driving all day on the 18th, we picked up our rental equipment at 8 a.m. on Friday morning and taught the kids how to put on skis. They were super excited and had no-fear from the get-go.

As part of our three days of skiing, both kids were registered in all-day lessons for the first two days. So just after 9 a.m., we left them with the ski school where they started to learn to ski in the kiddie area. Meanwhile, Ryan and I spent the day skiing the mountain.

It had been 10 years since Ryan and I last skied, but thankfully it's like riding a bike and after a couple of easy trails to start off our day, we had a great day.

We picked up the kids just 15 minutes before the lifts closed at the end of our first day, and even though they had spent their entire day on the kiddie hill and had only learned to ski 6 hours earlier, we took them halfway up the mountain (at Tremblant, you can go all the way to the top, or take a different chair that only goes halfway) for a quick run down. It was a little nerve wracking (for me) to watch them go -- but they loved it, and they did great.

Day 2 was much of the same. Before ski school started, we managed 2 quick half runs before dropping them off. And once again, Ryan and I skied all day while the kids learned -- although on this day, they were taken on the mountain for half of the day.

At the end of day 2, we once again rushed up the mountain with them for a quick run. But once we got to the top, Alexandra decided she was too tired to ski, so mom and Alex took the gondola back down while daddy and Austin skied down.

Day 3 was family day. Ryan and I were amazed at how much the kids learned in just 2 days. We spent much of the day bombing down the easy runs, but by day's end they were ready to try out the intermediate trails. Austin is very technical when he skis, careful of his turns and looking for any little jumps and side trails that he can find; Alex on the other hand, simply aims to get to the bottom as fast as she can!

On Dec. 22, we headed home for Christmas. All in all a great trip -- and we now have two little no-fear skiers, meaning more ski trips will be in our future!

I've used Facebook to upload an album this time, so hopefully this link below will work.